Intel Responds to AMD by Launching Core i7-8700K

Many people were left wondering why isn’t Intel answering AMD Ryzen’s architecture by launching a new CPU. Well, it seems like Intel was taking its time in order to create a high-end 6-core, highly overclockable chipset. We are talking about the Core i7-8700K which is based on the same Kaby Lake architecture as the previous Core i7-7700K.

Intel Core i7-8700K

This chip is built on Intel’s traditional 14nm++ process and it features a small frequency increase which makes it more power efficient in comparison with the previous Intel chips which are built on the 14nm++. In terms of architectural upgrade, Core i7-8700K is not that impressive. However, the chip makes up for that in other ways.

Price

Right from the start, we need to mention Core i7-8700K is cheaper than AMD’s Ryzen 7 1800X since it sports a price tag of $359. The chip is rather affordable and we can be sure that this $359 price tag makes it a highly sought-after hardware part.

Six-Cores

Leaving the price aside, Core i7-8700K features six cores which have a base clock speed of 3.7GHz. This is rather impressive but things get even better since Intel’s latest chip can also be overclocked to 4.7GHz. This proves that six-core chips are quite powerful and they should never be overlooked. Moreover, the chip also features 12 threads which make it easier for people to overlock it.

Test Results

In order to get an idea of just how well Core i7-8700K performs, the chip was compared against AMD’s top seller Ryzen 7 1800X on the Cinebench R15 test. Worth mentioning is that this test was performed with a system that’s packed with 32GB of DDR4-3200 in four sticks of 8GB each and a GTX 1080 Ti GPU running Nvidia’s 384.94 drivers on a Asus Prime Z370-A motherboard.

Nonetheless, Core i7-8700K came out with an impressive score of 1446 points. AMD’s Ryzen 7 1800X managed to score 1637 points which is way higher, but this was to be expected since Core i7-8700K is much cheaper. All in all, it seems like Core i7-8700K is the perfect answer to AMD’s Ryzen lineup.